February 28, 2013

Silhouette March Promotion

We have two posts going on today. Scroll down to see our "Cards On Thursday" post!

Silhouette's March Promotion went live today, and we are excited to help them spread the news, while sharing some new project inspiration along the way.

We were encouraged to use the Silhouette Studio Designer Edition software in the creation of our projects. We set up two of our layout designers, Gina Lideros and Becki Adams, with this new software and in a little over 24 hours, they came up with some fabulous layouts to share with you today, along with a few peeks into how they used the sofware in their design process.

I wanted to
create a layout that was as fun and fresh as my daughter's fashion sense. I
started my layout by creating a triangular file in Silhouette and using the designer
edition software to modify it. After I cut my Freestyle Sophisticates paper (Peep)
I placed alternating strips of designer tape under my paper and then stitched
on top. I added in pieces from the Engaged At Last collection and finished off my layout with some fabulous Bella
feathers.

First I created a triangular shaped background using the polygon tool. I used the copy and paste feature to repeat the pattern. After I was done creating my triangle background I used the group feature to group my background together.

Next, I selected the Shear tool that
comes with the designer edition software. I then selected the Horizontal shear
30 degree angle from the box on the right side. This gave my triangles an
elongated look. After getting the desired angle that I
wanted I sent cut my file and then used it as a background for my layout.

I had this self portrait of my daughter
that she took using her camera phone. I just loved the way the sun rays reflected
on her in the background. I used that as my inspiration to create my title. I
used the designer edition software for Silhouette to modify a title "dream
big" that I had purchased in the Silhouette online store. Bella Blvd's Sand & Surf collection
was perfect for the theme of my layout. I kept the background of my layout
simple so that the focus could be on the title work and the photo. I finished
off my layout by adding in a fun mix of Bella feathers, buttons and designer
tape.

To get started, I opened up a file that
I had purchased in the Silhouette online store (Dream big by KI Memories). I
sized my title to the dimensions that I wanted and then selected the advanced knife
tool that comes with the designer edition software.

When selected the knife tool will open
up a window on the right side. The advanced knife tool comes with 11
different blades. This is a great feature of the designer edition. I
selected the straight edge knife and positioned my blade in the bottom
right hand corner of my title. I then sliced into my title in an upwards angle.

After I cut the first angle I continued
making more cuts in an upward angle until it appeared to look like a sunburst. After I achieved the desired sunburst
effect, I cut out my title out of different pieces of pattern paper from
Bella's Sand & Surf collection. And then I pieced them together on my
layout.

For
this layout I wanted to create one of my very own designs from scratch. So I
started with a rectangle. The rulers that come with the Designer Edition were
so helpful with this design because everything needed to line up perfectly in
order for it to look right.

I used the shear feature to make the rectangles
into parallelograms. I then copied and pasted the design several times along
the bottom and left hand side of the page.

After cutting my design I attached
the negative space to a piece of cardstock that had decorative tape on it. I
finished the layout with lots of goodies from the Sand & Surf line. I'm so
excited to have a layout created with my own design using the Designer Edition
software.

I
started my first project with a heart from Echo Park out of the Silhouette
store. I knew I wanted the title of my page to be heartbreaker so I tried out
one of the different knife features on the designer software.

I used the
triangular knife to cut the center heart and make it look broken by cutting
down the center and moving the right half of the heart slightly to the right
and down.

For this particular design I used the negative space and backed it
with cardstock that I had covered with decorative tapes. I wanted more
attention drawn to the hearts so I used my black pen to create some faux
stitching around the hearts. I wanted this layout to be about how my little guy
has such blue eyes and blond hair that he's sure to be a heartbreaker when he
gets a little older. I love how it turned out and how easy it was to create in the
Silhouette Designer Software.

Silhouette makes some amazing products, and scrappers everywhere are addicted to these machines. If you've been thinking about purchasing either the Silhouette Portrait or the Silhouette CAMEO, now is a great time to make it happen. Please click HERE (make sure to use this link, as it's the only place our promo code will work) to take advantage of this month’s discount and don’t forget to enter "BELLA" as the promo code to get these special offers.

Silhouette is so incredibily generous that they are providing us with a Silhouette Portrait to give away to one of our lucky blog readers!!! If you don't already own one of these amazing machines, just leave us a comment to be entered in our random drawing. Comments will remain open until Sunday evening, and we will announce a winner on Monday, March 4th. Good luck everyone!